Combined bumper and weather seal means for automobile doors



Feb. 19, 1935. A. F. wlNTERcoRN 1,991,543

COMBINED BUMPER AND WEATHER SEAL MENS FOR AUTOMOBILE DOORS Filed April 26, 1934 Patented Feb. 19, 1935 1,991,643

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEr.;--.,f.

COMBINED BUBIPER AND WEATHER SEAL liIEAN S FOR AUTOMOBILE DOORS Andrew F. Wintercorn, Rockford, lil., assignor to The Atwood Vacuum Machine Company, Rockford, Ill., a copartnership composed of Seth B. Atwood and James T. Atwood Application April 26, 1934, Serial N0. 722,494

`14; Claims. (Cl. 296-44) This invention relates to motor vehicle confurther modied or alternative constructions, and structions and has particular reference to means Fig. 8 is a section similar to Fig. 4a showing for cushioning the closing of the doors and sealstill another modied or alternative construcing the same against the weather. tion. v

Automobile doors have, in the past, relied upon Similarv reference numerals are applied to cor- 5 rubber bumper blocks to absorb the shock and responding parts throughout the views. jar of closing, but little or no attention was given The door 10, mounted on the usual hinges 11, the matter of weather sealing. At best, some is in accordance with the Hughes application projecting portions of the interior upholstering provided with a cushioning and sealing strip 12 were relied upon to give some protection from the on the inside of its outwardly projecting margiloV weather at the joints between the door and the nal flange 13. The flange 13 is on the exterior pillars and other parts of the door frame. Obviof the door, and the door, trame 14 has a conously, such interior seals aside from giving doubttinuous marginal recess 15 to receive this ilange yful benet for Weather protection, afforded no so that the outside of the door comes substanprotection whatever against the iniiltration oi tially ush with the outside of the body when 15 rain or snow into the spaces between the doorclosed. 'I'he strip 12 will ordinarily be provided and frame with the result that the door was apt all the way around `the door but .may be proto freeze in place and make opening diilicult, if Vvided only in sections and still aiord some of the not impossible. Hence, there is no question as to beneilts of my invention. The strip `12 is prefthe advantage of sealing from without rather erably of molded sponge rubber, because that 2o than from within. In the copending application material has the desired softness and resilience of James R.. Hughes, Serial No. 720,783, led April to compress readily for sealing purposes and have 16, 1934, there is disclosed a sponge rubber strip the requisite spring back for cushioning purinterposed directly between the outer projecting poses. The strip 12 `is cemented, or otherwise flange of the door and the outer marginal recess suitably secured, at the back thereof to the inin the frame into which the ange projects. side 16 of the flange 13, and is preferably gen- This strip is subjected to flexing and compression erally V-shaped in cross-section so as to provide in the closing of the door for cushioning action two longitudinal beads 17 and 18 for contact with as well as weather sealing. It is the principal the door frame along two substantially parallel i object of my invention to provide a generally lines. In that way, a double seal is secured, 3o similar type of strip, correspondingly located, which is moreefl'ective from the standpoint of and to provide in connection therewith solid rubweather protection. As clearlyk appears in Fig. 3,

. ber means, either interposed between sections of the bead 17, which is outermost, makes substanthe sponge rubber strip or molded integral theretially right angle contact with the fiat bottom`19 with to prevent destructile compression of the of the recess 15 for the principal cushioning ac- 35 sponge rubber by assuming enogh of the cushtion and incidentally sealing. 'I'he other bead ioning action, without interfering in any way 18 has an inclined side face 20 which, in the with the combined cushioning and weather sealclosing of the door, makes wiping contact with ing action of the strip. the edge 21 of the door frame adjacent .the bot- The invention is illustrated in the accompanytom 19 of the recess, principally for sealing and 40 i118 drawing, in Which-- incidentally for some cushioning action. The

Figure 1 is a side view of a portion of an autoinclination of the side of the bead 18 also insures mobile body shown a door equipped with the a continuous seal all aroundthe door because combined bumper and weather seal means ot my even though the joint 22 between the 'door and 45 invention; frame may not be uniform all around the door, 45

Figs. 2 and 3 are vertical sections, and Fig. 4 is the strip will be .placed far enough toward the a horizontal section on the correspondingly numouter edge of the flange 13 'to `insure some portion bel'ed lines 0f Figure 1; of the inclined face 20 of the bead 18 contacting Fig. 4a is a view similar to Fig. 4 showing the the edge 21 for sealing purposes. The bead 18 sponge rubber and solid rubber in uncompressed will iiex laterally toward the peripheral wall 23 50 condition, as distinguished from the compressed of the door and come into abutment therewith,

` condition of'Fig'. 4; and in thatway not only insure a better seal at Fig. 5 is a section similar toFig. 2 or Fig. 3 21 but also'absorb some of the shock and jar` in showing a modiiied or alternative construction, the .closing of the door. The bead 18l must, of

55 the same being true of Figs. 6 and 7, which are course, be suiiiciently longer than the bead 17 to 55' CII reach inte the joint 22 between the door and frame. f

Out of regard for the softness of the sponge rubber strip 12 and the fact that it might break down if subjected. to heavy pressure repeatedly, as well as its tendency to break loose from the ange 13 to which it is usually cemented, as at 16, it is the object of my invention to provide less easily compressible solid rubber bumper means in combination with the sponge rubber strip. In Figure 1, these solid rubber bumpers are numbered 24. Four are indicated but, of course, any number might be used. They are shownat the top, front and lower edges of the door `but could be lprovided on all four edges in uniformly spaced secured, to the inside of theiange 13 and havingv bent-in lugs 28 projecting from opposite' ends into recesses provided therefor in the ends of the block, see Fig, 4. rEach block 24 may beprovided with a projecting rib 27 tol enter the joint 22,

whereby to provide the weather seal in the gaps between the strips 12.` In `otherwords, ythe projections 27 will assume the duty of the beads 18 so far as the blocks 24 are concerned. Y l' In operation,l it will be seen from a comparison I of Figs. 4 and 4a that when the door is closed, the sponge rubber strips 12 are subjected only to a fraction of the compression that would otherwise result, owing to the fact that the solid rubber blocks,24 are not capable of compressing as readily. In that way, Athe strips 12 are protected against destructive compression, enough of the cushioning action being assumed by the solid rubber blocks without interfering with the Acombined cushioning andweather sealing action of the strips. 'I'here is consequently less wear and tear on the sponge rubber strips and lessdanger.

of their'. coming loose. In uncompressed condi-- tion` the` strips project slightly beyond the blocks 24, as shown `at Fig. 4a, so that they will have to be compressed first to a slight extent before the blocks are subjected to compression. AAs soon as the blocks 24 com'e into engagement with the bottom 19 of the recess 15, itis obvious that there is Y very little further compression of the strips andA blocks; consequently, thesponge rubber' parts are never squashed and the life thereof is consider.

ably prolonged. It is, of courseclear that the strips 12 and blocks 24 together serve to completely seal the joints `22 between theudoor and frame against the weather. vThe seal is` not only more effective than that secured with the old practice'of having projectingxportions of the upholstering for an inside seal, but also closes the joints to keep out rain and snow, so thatthere isl never any likelihood of the door freezing in p ace.

A further advantage of .this invention to which attention was not called before isv the factthat the compression of the strip between the door and frame, especially at the hinge side of the door, results in making .the door tighter .than it was ever possible heretofore; that is, the door is not free to rattle, even though the hinges might have sufficient play. therein to allow rattling otherwise. The compression ofthe strip, in] other words, takes up any play in the hinges as well as at the lock or latch, and there is accordingly no opportunity for rattling. With door bumpers as heretofore provided, the door would rattle unless some provision were made to place the hinges vunder constraint, and many accessories for that Referring to Fig. 5, I have shown a modified or 4 alternative construction in which the bumper blocks are mounted on the door frame instead of on the door, the block 24a being buttoned into a retainer 28 formed as a cut and bent-in portion of the frame 14, the bumper having projecting end portions 29 engaging inside the frame 14 to retain y the block in place, as in Perry Patent 1,884,997. The block 24a engages the inside of the flange 13 of the door, the strip 12a being cut away, as at 30, to receive the end of the bumper. Since only the upper bead 17 need be cut away, the lower bead 18 will still serve its purpose so far as weather sealing is concerned. 'Ihis construction will, of course, operate in about the same manner as the one previously described, that is, the bead 17 of the strips 12a will be subjected to slight compression before the bumper blocks 24a come into abutment with the door to assume their share of the shock and jar in cushioning the door closing.

Fig. 8 shows a construction closely related to that of Figures 1-4 in which the sponge rubber strip 12b has solid rubber sections 24h molded integral therewith at the points where the solid rubber bumper blocks would otherwise be placed. If desired, these segments could be of much shorter length than is indicated in Fig. 8 and provided at regularly spaced intervals the full length of the strip, in order to give the sponge rubberl protection against squashing at all points onthe door. As indicated, the solid rubber sections 24b are properly made of smaller cross-section than the sponge rubber portions so that the lsponge rubber will be subjected to slight compres- In Fig. 6, Ihave yshown a strip 12e, the bead 17c of which 1s of sona rubber its fun length, whereas,

the bead 18C is 0f sponge rubber its full length. l

With this construction, the door bumper action is assumed' almost exclusively by the bead 17e and the weather .seal action is assumed by the bead 18e. Manifestly, the less readily compressible bead 17e will prevent the sponge rubber bead from being squashed and such a composite strip would, therefore, be extremely durable. Very likely, this strip could be used along the top, front, and lower edges to good advantage, in' connection with an ordinary sponge rubhave been drawn with a view to covering all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

. In an automobile having a hinged door, a

bumper strip of easily compressible sponge rubber arranged to be compressed in the closing of the door, and less easily compressible solid rubber bumper means arranged' to be also compressed in the closing of the door, the latter being disposed for compression after an initial amount of compression of the strip, whereby to add protective resistance against extreme compression of the strip, said solid rubber being in lengths interposed at certain points between lengths of the soft rubber.

' 2. In an automobile having a body and a door hinged thereon, the combination of resilient bumpers `at spaced points in the joint between the door and body to cushion the closing of the door, and a compressible weather strip extending lengthwise of the joint frombumper to bumper, and serving, with the bumpers, to completely close and seal the joint.

3. A structure as set forth in claim 1 wherein the solid rubber means is molded integral with the sponge rubber strip.

4. A combined bumper and weather strip for doors comprising a rubber strip partly of soft rubber and partly of hardv rubber, the hard rubber being in lengths interposed at certain points between lengths of the soft rubber.

5. A combined bumper and weather strip for doors comprising a rubber strip having two parallel projecting beads, onebf hard rubber for bumper purposes, and the other of soft rubber for weather seal purposes,'the second bead being arranged to be compressed in and close the joint between a door and door frame. j

6. In an automobile having a door mounted on hinges on the body thereof, the combination of compressible bumper and weather "strips on one of the door and body' portions extending lengthwise of the joint to seal the joint except for one or more gaps between the ends of adjacent strips, and -less easily compressible bumper blocks on one of the door and body portions lling said gaps and serving to cushion the closing of the door.

7. In an automobile having a body and a door hinged thereon, the combination with resilient bumpers at spaced points in the joint between the door and body to cushion the" closing of the door, and a compressible weather strip extending lengthwise of the joint from bumper to bumper, said strip having a longitudinal projecting portion fitting in and sealing the joint, and said bumpers also having portions formed thereon to enter the joint for sealing purposes.

8. In a motor vehicle having a door hinged on the body thereof, soft rubber cushioning and sealing strip means compressed in the joint' between the door and body in the closing of the door, and hard rubber bumpers at the points of i principal percussion to absorb destructive compressive forces to protect said strip means, the strip means extending from bumper to bumper to form therewith a complete seal for said joint.

9. In an automobile having a hinged door, a compressible bumper arranged to be compressed in the closing of the doorfsaid bumper being partly of relatively soft rubber adapted to be readily compressed, and partly of relatively hard rubber not so readily compressible, the latter having the soft rubber disposed for partial compression prior to compression of the hard rubber, whereby the latter is arranged to protect the soft rubber against extreme compression. A

10. In an automobile having a body and a door hinged thereon, a combined bumper and weather strip arranged to be compressed in the closing' of the door, said strip having two parallel projecting beads, one of hard rubber for-bumper purposes and the other of soft rubber for weather seal purposes, the second bead fitting in and sealing the joint between the door and body.

11. In an automobile having a body and a door hinged thereon, a combined bumper and weather strip arranged to be compressed in the closing of the door, said strip having two parallel prodoor against a jamb, and the soft rubber portions being disposed for engagement with another surface, and so that the soft portion is initially slightly compressed before compression of the hard portion commences, whereby the hard portion serves to protect the soft portion against extreme compression.

13. In an automobile having a hinged door, a bumper strip of easilycompressible sponge rubber arranged to be compressed in the closing of the door, and less easily compressible solid rubber bumper means arranged'to be also compressed in the closing oi the door, the latter being disposed behind the plane of the easily compressible sponge rubber for compression after an initial amount of compression of the strip, whereby to add protective resistance against extreme compression of the strip, the solid rubber means being molded integral with the sponge rubber strip.

14. A bumper for doors comprising a rubber body having a portion of soft rubber and another portion of hard rubber, the hard rubber portion being disposed forV engagement with one part in the closing of a door against a jamb, and the soft rubber portion being disposed for engagement with another part, and so that the soft 

